All about common sense: Jaishankar’s ‘Hanuman ji’ analogy on diplomacy  

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Saturday cited the diplomatic powers of Lord Hanuman to explain the real purpose of diplomacy and said diplomacy is all about building coalitions and managing them towards an end that is in national interest.

Giving the example of Lord Hanuman, Jaishankar said: “Look at Lord Hanuman. He is being sent by Lord Ram to a hostile territory. He is told to go there, figure out the lay of the land, we have no idea about this place, no idea where Ma Sita is. So, it is a kind of intelligence gathering recee, a very open-ended mission,” said Jaishankar at a session with Sanjeev Sanyal at the ongoing Delhi University literature festival here.

The Foreign Minister went on to explain what Lord Hanuman managed to achieve.

“And what does he (Lord Hanuman) do? He goes there (to Lanka). He is actually successful in meeting and keeping up Ma Sita’s morale. He is able to get into Ravana’s court by surrendering himself. He is able to understand the dynamics of the court and is the only person who gets an understanding of Vibhishana, and that Vibhishana is a good guy who could be used,” Jaishankar said.

He added, “And what does Lord Hanuman do? He is actually able to set a place on fire. Think of it—a diplomat going to a place and setting a place, not metaphorically but literally on fire...”

Asked if he had attempted anything like that ever, Jaishankar said, “Do not tempt me.”

The minister then said foreign policy is about common sense, “how do you maximise your affairs, how do you purpose them for a task at hand, how to manage people.”

“What are we trying to do today as Bharat—we are trying to increase our number of friends, trying to get countries which may not be on the same page together and work towards an end. This kind of coalition building is very important,” he said.